Restaurants, bars snuff out smoking as new law nears - Portland Business Journal:

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The survey found that 91 percentr of establishments know that the new Smokefree Workplacse Law takes effecton Jan. 1, 2009. The survey considereds establishments that hold an Approximately 60 percent of those businessesz may allow smoking provided they post signs prohibiting minors from the Of those that canallow smoking, 44 percentf do not. The telephone survey was conducte in Apriland May. The new law, which was approved by the in June expands the number of workplaces tobe smoke- free to include bars, bingo halls, bowlin g centers, employee breakrooms and at leastt 75 percent of hotel and motel rooms.
It also prohibits smokintg within 10 feet of allbuilding exits, operable windows and ventilation intakes. Agenciew favor new bridge, light rail plan All six governmental bodied mulling alternatives to the current Interstate Bridge want anew six-lanee structure that contains a light-rail line to and bicycle and pedestrianb paths. The voted 10-3 for a new bridge, cementinfg the six-lane option as the project'x locally preferred alternative. The council joined TriMet, C-TRAN and city councils in Portland and Vancouver in approving a newtoll structure, as opposef to revamping the existing Columbia Rivet bridge.
The group will work to addressthe agencies' many recommendationsw on the project. The option offerws "the best potential to improve freight relieve congestion, improve safety for travelersz and provide real traveol choices while serving the public's needs," said Don Wagner, regionakl administrator for the 's Southwest Region. The project is estimateds to cost $4.2 billion and will be fundefd by various public agenciesand tolls. Projecrt leaders must still make severalp decisionson financing, how to levy tolls, the numbed of auxiliary lanes and the bridge'sa pedestrian and bicycle pathways.
Planners will also explore high capacity transit alignments on Hayden Island and in The Western Climate Initiative on Wednesday release d an initial design of its proposed regulatory framewor k fora cap-and-trade system of carbon emissions. The plan as proposec would cover only sources thatemit 25,000 metric tons of carbonm dioxide a year, meaning only about 60 entitiexs in Oregon would be subject to according to an estimate from the . Even so, the proposalp would encompass about 90 percent of the global warming pollution emissionz across the seven Western states and three Canadiah provinces included within the WesternClimate Initiative.
Undetr a cap-and-trade system, limits would be imposecd on how much carbon certain entitiescoul emit. An emitter that can't effectively reduce its pollutionb would be able to purchase allowances from emitters that are below the cappedlimit -- at once rewardingg clean industries while providing financial incentives for heavier polluters to clean up. In the proposal released any source thatemits 25,000 metric tons of carbom dioxide must begin providing annual emissions reports to the statr beginning in 2010. The emissiones cap for electricity, stationary source emissions and processw emissions would startin 2012. The drafy proposal answers a few key questionssfor stakeholders.
Among them is the inclusion of transportatio and home and commercial heating fuele intothe cap-and-trade system starting in 2015.